Miwok
The Miwok (or Mewuk ) are an Indian people who originally inhabited a large area around what is now San Francisco in central California and the Yosemite Valley in the western Sierra Nevada .
History before 1848
Before the US appropriated California in 1848, the Miwok experienced the early Spanish and Mexican colonization around the Roman Catholic missions . They fought against this invasion. After 1850, the California gold rush and agricultural development brought large numbers of settlers to the Miwok areas. Treaties were signed that gave the settlers large parts of the country. Many settlers enslaved, chased away, or killed hundreds of miwoks. Miwok found work as fishermen, farm or miners, or loggers.
In 1990 the US Census counted around 3500 people with Miwok ancestors. Modern state-recognized Miwok in California live on rancherias ( reserves of less than 400 acres ). However, there is no national organization that represents the Miwok as a whole. You can find traditional songs, dances, weaving and beadwork, and traditional clothing for ceremonial purposes.
Language and settlement areas
The Miwok are Penuti- speaking California Indians who originally consisted of seven groups separated by dialect and residential area.
| group | Settlement area |
|---|---|
| Coast Miwok | north of present-day San Francisco |
| Lake Miwok | in the Clear Lake Basin |
| Bay Miwok (or Saclan) | in the delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers |
| Plains Miwok | further upstream on the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers |
| Northern Sierra Miwok | in the western foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada |
| Central Sierra Miwok | in the western foothills of the central Sierra Nevada |
| Southern Sierra Miwok | in the western foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada |
The Sierra groups formed by far the majority of the Miwok population and inhabited more than 100 villages at the time of the first contact with the Europeans.
The tribes on the coast - the Coast, Lake and Bay Miwok - collected acorns, and fished and hunted deer and other game with a bow and arrow. They lived in half-subterranean earth-covered huts made of posts and made watertight baskets adorned with ornaments and pearls.
The inland tribes - the Plains and Sierra Miwok - stayed in the foothills or lowlands and only went up to the high mountains (sierras) to hunt in summer. Their main dwelling was a semi-underground, earth-covered hut, but in the summer in the mountains they lived in shelters built on the rocks made of tree bark. Their main diet was acorns, which were stored in basket-like stores. They made different kinds of baskets, but they didn't know any pottery.
The tribal society was organized into lineages and two opposing halves, or so-called moieties , which regulated certain things such as ancestry and marriage; and there were obviously differences in rank. There were chiefs as well as sub-chiefs, and women could acquire such positions in the male line. The Miwok in the interior adhered to the Kuksu cult , which was expressed in various rituals, dances costumed with animal skins and the embodiment of spirits. In the late 20th century there were just over 100 coastal miwoks and more than 100 inland miwoks.
Role in the dispute over the alleged Drake plaque
When Francis Drake landed in California in 1579, according to contemporary reports, the land was transferred from the local residents, the ancestors of the Miwok, to the English Queen and this was documented by affixing a brass plaque to a post.
A forgery of this plaque planned as a joke in 1933 in the context of the historical association E Clampus Vitus (ECV) only became known decades later. Renowned institutions recognized the forgery as authentic very quickly, and clearing up the joke would have caused considerable damage to the company's image.
In 1937 William Fuller, Miwok chief and member of the ECV presented a successor to the Drake plaque. Fuller officially withdrew the alleged donation to the Queen of England and again transferred California to the USA, which was also welcomed by the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt .
See also
literature
- Robert F. Heizer (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 8 California, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978, ISBN 0-16-004574-6
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Historical journal reports secrets behind infamous "Drake's Plate" hoax Who made Drake's "plate of brasse"? by Kathleen Maclay, UoC Media Relations, February 18, 2003
- ↑ Who Made Drake's Plate of Brass? Hint: It Wasn't Francis Drake Edward Von der Porten, Raymond Aker, Robert W. Allen and James M. Spitze, in California History, Vol. 81, no. 2 (2002), pp. 116-133, eds. California Historical Society
- ↑ THE MYSTERIOUS HISTORY OF E CLAMPUS VITUS , by Dr. Albert Shumate, MD, self-writing the ECV story at the Julia C. Bulette Chapter in Nevada